"Desert Archery..." thread I wrote this...
I guess when I was "younger" I used to post stuff to blatantly annoy the hell out of people and provoke a response, no matter how negative. Now that I'm "older" I realize just how big a *censored* doing that stuff made me look. Usually people will provoke you by giving you encouragement via PM, but there's a reason they wouldn't encourage you in front of everyone else, they're just helping you make a bigger ass of yourself.
The thing that amazes me about this site is how much help they offer a person who knows it all and does nothing but spit in their face...
There are truly great people on this site and I can't wait to draw a great tag, scout hard, receive helpful advice and share it all on HW!!!
There are truly great people on this site and I can't wait to draw a great tag, scout hard, receive helpful advice and share it all on HW!!!I didn't think that I would get a chance to prove my point so soon. So spring bear tag in hand and only 3 days to hunt I started doing my due diligence. Word of mouth, Google Earth, bio talk, help from
HW MEMBERS 
One of the first days that I ever hunted in WA (archery) my buddy took me to a draw where (in 2 hours) I shot at a bear, missed, he shot at same bear, missed, I shot again, missed. Bear fever hit us hard!! Sitting there like idiots that don't stay calm and can't shoot... 15 minutes later another bear in the exact same spot!! My buddy made a perfect shot and got him. While we were waiting we saw ANOTHER BEAR farther off. We got my buddys bear the next morning and I was hooked!! I wanted a bear bad...that was 6.5 years ago and it still hadn't happened for me.
Long story short I got great leads from
Pueblo, Todd_ID, tonymoe, BLUEBULLS, billythekidrock and last but the opposite of least
BLRmanI traded PM's and talked to the bio, google earthed the crap out of it and waited.
Tuesday was gonna be the day, I was going to leave after work. Of course I started to get sick on Monday. I figured it was time to cowgirl up so I left Tuesday after work as planned. Of course it was supposed to snow in the mountains Tuesday night, all day Wednesday, etc. I thought about calling the bio and saying "Hey Jack!! Do bears come out in the snow or what??!!" What difference would it have made...this was my only time to hunt.
Tuesday evening (the walkabout). I made a circle in the rain on a ridge, saw sign, found onions, stopped near a knob...now picture this if you will: a wile bear bear hunter relieving himself whilst glassing an opposite ridge for bruin (don't judge me I was in the great outdoors) approximately 60 yards to this hunters left on top of the knob where the hunter couldn't see was a bear tearing an onion patch apart. I zipped up and turned to continue my hike back to camp. I don't think that I took a step and I saw...bear back. "Well no ____" I said to myself. I had nightmares of shooting a sow with cubs and watching/listening to them bawl over their piled up mom so I decided to wait for a bit and see what was crackalackin. Being the ever so stealthy hunter that I am, I managed somehow to clang my rifle barrel against my shooting sticks. Aforementioned bear stood up and looked at me. I decided to sit still and hope that it wouldn't run away....and run
HE did!! Oh well. Still a cool experience. Headed back to camp/truck.
Wednesday: SNOW. Woke up to 3" on the ground. My windows were completely snowed in. I walked around in the snow and the cold...probably didn't help my sickness but I like da snow. The only problem with being down with the sickness was that I didn't want to eat. I knew that packing something out would be a chore in my weak state but that wasn't a problem at the moment. I cut some bear tracks/belly drags in the snow and followed it a bit but after a hour or so the snow that was falling had covered them up completely. By 4 pm the snow was almost completely gone. I was texting my boy
BLR from ridge tops when I got service to keep him in the game and pass the time. I saw a big ol bear down in the depths of the canyon, it was a BIG blondie with what had to be a yearling cub because it was 100# at least! BLR and BB confirmed via text that I should go after the sow because the cub was big enough and would be kicked out soon anyways. So I barreled down the canyon and halfway down I was hit with the biggest snow furry of the trip for a half hour. I waited it out and then when I didn't see the bear I went back up to my perch...sure enough 20 minutes later, same bear exact same spot!! I tried another stalk and got busted.
Thursday: It had cleared but I was sick as a dog. I could stop myself from sneezing but the sneeze would go to my nose and then I'd have to "sneeze" my nose...it was disgusting. I called the hunt at 0900. I jumped a bear in dark timer at 0930, I must've been less than 50 yards from this bear for the last 20 minutes on two different sided of him!! It looked like a big ol' reddish blonde butt running away and at that point I decided...GAME ON. I circled around, jumped some elk and waited on the opposite side of a clearcut for an hour, no dice. I figured that he hadn't run that far. I moved to the opposite side of the dark timber patch from where I'd jumped the bear and waited near the bottom where I could see for almost 100 yards all around me. 45 min. No dice. I kept hearing stuff above me but I hear things in the woods all the time. At this point I called it a hunt, again. I started moving straight uphill and I had probably gone 50 yards when I saw him. Booyah!! Feeding right along right to left. He was 100 yards dang near straight above me but I'm a terrible shot especially without shooting sticks, which I couldn't use to to the angle. I crept slowly towards him ducking down so that he really couldn't see me even if he tried. I had a tree 10 feet above and in front of me that I wanted to use as a rest...just a few more steps...he put his head behind a tree. "F it" I raised the gun and violently yanked the trigger as the crosshairs jerked left....safety was still on.
I relaxed said "You're an idiot" and focused on squeezing. He went crazy and came right at me for an instant (scared the holy crap out of me, I'll never forget the look on that bears face) no doubt that I would've stood there shellshocked while he tore me to shreds. luckily he turned left (dragging his back end) and went down to the bottom of the draw where I finished him off.
As for bears being tough: BLR said break both front shoulders. As you can see in the one of the pics there is a shot that enters front shoulder and exits high on the back on the spine. So you can see that I took out his back end with a spine shot that was about a foot behind the head and he was still running!!! Also he had a wound on his right front leg (exposing tendon and muscle) that wasn't bloody, it looked like the same shot that made that wound had grazed his face because there was also a wound that was small and along the same line there? I figure that if it was from me it would have bled but it looked pretty fresh. Thoughts? I found 3 holes in his hide in the frontal area where I was aiming but I coulda nicked the hide when I skinned it too. I made two pack trips that almost killed me but got it done. That's quite enough out of me. I really owe it all to BLR, thanks again!!! Picture this again: A victorious bear hunter with a fattie victory cigar in his mug wiping tears out of his eyes... I forgot which text it was BLR but it wasn't about bears or bear hunting.
To BLR I'm glad that my lighting up BIG RED could light up your life for a little bit.
So much for "long story short" pics...
